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The Best Episodes of The X-Files Season 8

Every episode of The X-Files Season 8 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of The X-Files Season 8!

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The exploits of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    The X-Files Season 8 Episode 1 - Within (1)
    8.1/10(3507 votes)

    #1 - Within (1)

    S8:E1

    Newly appointed Deputy Director Kersh organizes a manhunt for Mulder and assigns Agent John Doggett to head the team. Scully and Skinner go along with the investigation but are warned by Kersh that they will be fired if anything is said about aliens. Scully, along with the Lone Gunmen, surmise that the Bounty Hunter is trying to erase all evidence of abductions, and they realize that he may be going after Gibson Praise, who is now living at a school in Arizona. Agent Doggett comes to the same conclusion and his team race Scully and Skinner to the school where they find Mulder trying to kidnap Gibson.

    Director:Kim Manners
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  2. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 2 - Without (2)
    8.2/10(3429 votes)

    #2 - Without (2)

    S8:E2

    As the search for Mulder intensifies in the Arizona desert, Gibson Praise leads Scully to believe that she is truly closer to her target. Meanwhile, A.D. Kersh informs Agent Doggett that he has been assigned as Mulder's successor on the X-Files.

    Director:Kim Manners
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  3. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 3 - Patience
    7.4/10(3321 votes)

    #3 - Patience

    S8:E3

    While tackling his first X-File case about a series of gruesome murders surrounding a bat-like creature, Doggett quickly learns that his investigative techniques are somewhat dissimilar to Scully's.

    Director:Chris Carter
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  4. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 4 - Roadrunners
    8.0/10(3570 votes)

    #4 - Roadrunners

    S8:E4

    Scully evades Doggett's help in investigating a vicious murder in a remote area of Utah, and she is trapped in the small town by a religious cult that believe a slug-like creature is the second coming of God who needs a human host to survive.

    Director:Rod Hardy
    Writer:Vince Gilligan

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  5. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 5 - Invocation
    7.5/10(3295 votes)

    #5 - Invocation

    S8:E5

    In 1990 a little boy inexplicably disappeared from his crowded school playground and was never seen again until now, ten years later, and he hasn't aged a day.

    Director:Richard Compton
    Writer:David Amann

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  6. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 6 - Redrum
    8.3/10(3740 votes)

    #6 - Redrum

    S8:E6

    A prominent lawyer wakes to find himself in jail and about to be prosecuted for the murder of his wife. He has no memory of this event however, and when the days begin to regress backward towards the murder, he realizes that he has been given a second chance.

    Director:Peter Markle
    Writer:Steven Maeda

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  7. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 7 - Via Negativa
    7.4/10(3297 votes)

    #7 - Via Negativa

    S8:E7

    Working without Scully's input, Doggett and Skinner try to stop the mysterious murder spree of a drug-induced religious cult leader, and it becomes clear that the man can enter the dreams of the people he knows and can kill them in their sleep.

    Director:Tony Wharmby
    Writer:Frank Spotnitz

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  8. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 8 - Surekill
    6.8/10(2987 votes)

    #8 - Surekill

    S8:E8

    When a real estate agent is shot inside a prison cell by someone who apparently fired from the roof, Scully and Doggett track him to two exterminators, one of whom has x-ray vision.

    Director:Terrence O'Hara
    Writer:Greg Walker

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  9. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 9 - Salvage
    6.7/10(3002 votes)

    #9 - Salvage

    S8:E9

    A man whose blood is rapidly changing into metal alloy enacts revenge on those who caused his condition.

    Director:Rod Hardy
    Writer:Jeffrey Bell

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  10. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 10 - Badlaa
    6.8/10(3271 votes)

    #10 - Badlaa

    S8:E10

    An Indian mystic whose son died in a chemical plant accident smuggles himself into the United States and takes his revenge on two families in suburban Washington, D.C.

    Director:Tony Wharmby
    Writer:John Shiban

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  11. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 11 - The Gift
    7.7/10(3268 votes)

    #11 - The Gift

    S8:E11

    Doggett comes upon an old case that Mulder kept secret from Scully and he follows up the investigation, hoping to find a possible connection to Mulder's disappearance.

    Director:Kim Manners
    Writer:Frank Spotnitz

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  12. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 12 - Medusa
    7.3/10(3075 votes)

    #12 - Medusa

    S8:E12

    Scully and Doggett must race against the clock to investigate and fight off a contagion lurking in the subway tunnels of Boston.

    Director:Richard Compton
    Writer:Frank Spotnitz

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  13. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 13 - Per Manum
    7.8/10(3227 votes)

    #13 - Per Manum

    S8:E13

    When Scully and Doggett are contacted by a man who claims his wife was murdered shortly after giving birth to an alien baby, Scully digs deeper into reports of alien fertilization on humans, and she begins to question her own pregnancy and its conception.

    Director:Kim Manners
    Writers:Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz

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  14. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 14 - This Is Not Happening (1)
    8.2/10(3289 votes)

    #14 - This Is Not Happening (1)

    S8:E14

    When Teresa Hoese (the woman Scully and Mulder met the previous spring in Oregon just before Mulder was abducted) is found in a desert after enduring alien testing, Doggett alerts Scully that this could have something to do with Mulder and his whereabouts. Skinner joins them and they travel to the hospital where Teresa is clinging to life by a thread, and Scully realizes that this is exactly what's going on with Mulder.

    Director:Kim Manners
    Writers:Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz

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  15. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 15 - Deadalive (2)
    8.2/10(3277 votes)

    #15 - Deadalive (2)

    S8:E15

    Shortly after Mulder is buried, Billy Miles is found very dead, but he somehow comes back to life. Skinner and Scully put all their hopes into digging up Mulder and discovering that he too, is still alive. As Mulder lies in the hospital without indication that he is going to fully recover, Krycek comes to Skinner and offers him a vaccine to the virus that has infected Mulder, but the cost of the vaccine is that Skinner has to kill Scully's unborn child.

    Director:Tony Wharmby
    Writers:Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz

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  16. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 16 - Three Words
    8.0/10(3144 votes)

    #16 - Three Words

    S8:E16

    Mulder's request for reassignment to the X-Files is denied by Kersh, who hopes that Mulder will simply quit the FBI. When a census worker is killed on the White House lawn trying to get information to the President, Mulder gets in over his head trying to discover what the man knew.

    Director:Tony Wharmby
    Writers:Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz

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  17. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 17 - Empedocles
    7.1/10(2946 votes)

    #17 - Empedocles

    S8:E17

    Special Agent Reyes enlists Mulder's help in investigating a supernatural killer's connection to the unsolved murder of Agent Doggett's son, Luke.

    Director:Barry K. Thomas
    Writer:Greg Walker

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  18. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 18 - Vienen
    7.8/10(3131 votes)

    #18 - Vienen

    S8:E18

    Mulder and Doggett are reluctantly thrown together to investigate several deaths aboard an oil rig, and Mulder becomes convinced that the rig is really carrying the black oil alien.

    Director:Rod Hardy
    Writer:Steven Maeda

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  19. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 19 - Alone
    7.7/10(3131 votes)

    #19 - Alone

    S8:E19

    While Scully takes maternity leave, Doggett is partnered with a young agent who is fascinated with the X-Files and has followed Mulder and Scully's careers. She and Doggett investigate the death of an old man and the disappearance of his son, but when they disappear as well Mulder heads out to search for them.

    Director:Frank Spotnitz
    Writer:Frank Spotnitz

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  20. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 20 - Essence (1)
    8.3/10(3150 votes)

    #20 - Essence (1)

    S8:E20

    Mulder and Doggett join forces to investigate the arson attack on a genetics lab where one of the doctors suspected of experimenting with alien impregnation is killed. They encounter Billy Miles, who has been changed into an alien replicant after his recent abduction and is attempting to erase evidence of the tests. When a woman helping Scully out at home is found to be a part of the conspiracy, the agents, along with Monica Reyes and Alex Krycek, know they must protect Scully and her baby from Billy Miles and get her out of the city.

    Director:Kim Manners
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  21. The X-Files Season 8 Episode 21 - Existence (2)
    8.7/10(3559 votes)

    #21 - Existence (2)

    S8:E21

    Mulder, Doggett and Skinner attempt to fight off the alien replicants, and they find a connection to the conspiracy that leads into the FBI while Reyes and Scully head to a remote farm to safeguard the birth of Scully's child.

    Director:Kim Manners
    Writer:Chris Carter

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Season 8 Ratings Summary

"Within (1)" is the best rated episode of "The X-Files" season 8. It scored 8.1/10 based on 3507 votes. Directed by Kim Manners and written by Chris Carter, it aired on 11/5/2000. This episode is rated 0.1 points higher than the second-best, "Without (2)".